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History is People
"History is People" is a paper by Rosemary Sutcliff distributed at a conference of the journal Children's Literature in Education in Exeter in 1971.Virginia Haviland, Children and Literature, 1973. It discusses her thoughts on the responsibilities of a children's writer, the advantages and pitfalls of historical fiction, and her belief that human nature remains essentially consistent and relatable throughout history. The essay was reprinted in the 1973 anthology Children and Literature: Views and Reviews, edited by Virginia Haviland. Some themes and portions of the text were reused in Sutcliff's 1989 conference paper "History and Time." Synopsis Sutcliff begins by stating that she and most serious children's writers feel a sense of responsibility towards the young readers whose characters their books may help to form. Her fiction tries to convey an ethic of doing the right thing for its own sake rather than for reward, and also tries to offer a rich and intriguing vocabulary. She argues that historical fiction is not necessarily escapist, though it allows greater freedom of roles for young people and a "safety barrier" which may not be present in contemporary problem fiction. Historical fiction is also subject to special hazards, such as a "cloak-and-dagger" tone; the over-inclusion of "undigested" historical research; modern sensibilities in period trapping; and the tricky balance of of too-archaic or too-modern dialogue, between which she tries to steer a middle course. Sutcliff insists that "History is People" and that, despite differences of custom (such as the acceptability of men's weeping in public in the Elizabethan period versus the early 20th century) fundamental human nature remains constant: "People Don't Change." She points out that even the "surface" customs may not be very different, and goes on to describe some favourite examples of relatable texts and objects. These include a Minoan child's pottery tree seen in Crete; the famous scene in the Iliad in which the baby Astyanax is frightened by his father Hector's helmet, which reminds her of a childhood friend afraid of his grandfather Admiral Domville's hat; and her suspicion that Astyanax's nickname Skamander, after the river, was a toilet joke. A letter preserved on papyrus from a Roman soldier to his mother asking for money is timeless; as are three much later English letters: a hint for a new gown from medieval lady Margery Paston to her husband; a love letter from widowed Queen Catherine Parr to her fiancé Tom Seymour; and the Earl of Sunderland's reply to his young daughter's "scribble letter" written a few days before his death at the Battle of Newbury. Sutcliff contends that such moments of identification are vital for the teaching of history, and particularly to convey the sense that history is not a series of set periods but a continuous process, which all people experience in their unfixed present. She believes that children and children's writers remain attuned to basic themes of human nature – friendship, loyalty, love, hate, revenge, good versus evil – which recur in legends, popular media like Westerns, and her own style of historical fiction. Reference works The following media or writers are quoted or mentioned in the essay: * Josephine Tey on "writing forsoothly" * Rudyard Kipling on the sound of dialogue * Westerns, e.g. The Virginian and Laramie * Minoan toy tree from Knossos at Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete * Homer's Iliad book 6, scene of Hector and Astyanax * Letter from Roman officer stationed at Alexandria to his mother * The Paston Letters: letter of Margaret Paston to her husband, 28 September 1443 * Letter of Catherine Parr to Thomas Seymour, 1547 * Letter of Henry Spencer to his wife and daughter, September 1643 * The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970 television series) * Article on children's authors in The Sunday Times newspaper * Beatrix Potter See also * Houses and History (1960) on Catherine Parr, Thomas Seymour, and Henry Spencer * "History and Time" (1989) * Blue Remembered Hills (1983) on the Domville family * Writing Historical Fiction (1988), Sutcliff quoted on excessive historical background External links * Read Children and Literature: Views and Reviews on Internet Archive Publication history # Conference paper. Exeter, UK : Children Literature in Education, 1971. # Children and Literature: Views and Reviews. Ed. Virginia Haviland. Glenview Ill., : Scott, Foreman & Co., 1973. References Category:Essays